Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Willing a wetland

Does a wetland have to be a natural occurrence to add value to the environment. Does everything that man does to create a wetland only destroy the underlying natural structures and hence have a negative impact?

My friends, Gail and Peter, have a wetland on their stud already although this was, I gather, created before their time by the raising of land across a gully to provide access to the house paddock. As you can see from the images below, this has the appearance of a gorgeous natural area and is home to many bird species and insects too numerous to mention.

However, further down this same gully Peter has now carved another dam which will have a capacity of about 3 megalitres whereas the top pond has only 2 megalitres. This is raw and destitute at this early stage. Come mid January it will be sown with grasses which will consolidate the soils and maintain the lie (lay) of the land. I suspect that this time next year, rushes will be forming at the waters' edge. The ducks already know of its existence. It will be fascinating to follow its development.

Useful Research Sites

Candles

They are the last romantics, these candles;Upside down hearts of light tipping wax fingers,And the fingers, taken in by their own haloes,Grown milky, almost clear, like the bodies of saints.It is touching, the way they'll ignore

A whole family of prominent objectsSimply to plumb the deeps of an eyeIn its hollow of shadows, its fringe of reeds,And the owner past thirty, no beauty at all.Daylight would be more judicious,